Purdue 58; Illinois 76

Well, the home/road Jekyll and Hyde routine continues as the Illini looked very good once again on their home floor, save for the first few minutes when they trailed by as many as nine. As I've mentioned before, it's just something I'm going to have to get used to, as last year, the Illini seemed to execute to perfection regardless of where they were playing, except maybe Ann Arbor and the last few minutes in Columbus.

Today saw the (let's hope) arrival of Richard McBride, who didn't seem content to hang out on the perimiter and launch threes. He finished the game with 19 points on six fied goals, only three of which were from beyond the arc. I'm not gonna pour through the box scores, but this is the first time I can ever remember McBride getting more points from non-three point areas on the floor than from long range. He even went 4-4 from the free throw line. Really! Four free throws! From McBride!! Just let that sink in for a minute.

Dee played OK, throwing in 12 points, and struggling from the field a bit. But he did put together about a 15 second hilight reel during which he made a terrific move and scored on a circus shot, followed that up with a rebound at the other end, which he proceeded to took down the floor before lobbing a perfect pass to Randle for yet another alley-oop. That wasn't the only monster jam of the afternoon, as Randle added another, and Augustine made a steal up top that he turned into one of his patented break away jams. Dee also added nine assists against only two turnovers, while Augie grabbed 12 more boards, extending his record as Illinois' all time leading rebounder.

So this closes the soft part of the schedule, and the Illini took care of business. The next stetch gets a little tougher, starting with Tuesday night's tilt at Wisconsin. Win that game, and the Illini ove into the driver's seat for the conference championship. But not everyone can be North Dakota State. Wins at the Kohl center don't come easy (they come easier than wins at the Hall for road teams, but still...). Coming off of two fine performances at home against teams that aren't very good, Illini Nation will be fired up for Tuesday night.

Sucks 6; Kings 2

For now, I'm going to stop caring abou this train wreck of team. Lord knows the players have stopped caring.

UCLA 63; OSU 54

For the second time this season, the Bruins went on the road and swept their Pac 10 opponents. That's something that you might expect to do once in a season, but twice out of four opportunities, let alone your first two trips, well, that's pretty special. I'll grant you, only one of those sweeps came while playing a very good team (Arizona, who admittedly is down a bit this year), and I'd be shocked if they swept the Bay Area schools and/or the Washington Schools. But they've beaten teams who have generally held their own at home (OSU beat U of A by 10 at home).

The key word for today's game was 'balance'. Four Bruins scored in double figures, and none of those four had more than 14 points (LRMAM). Three Bruins had seven or more rebounds, Aaron Afflalo leading the way with 10 as LRMAM failed to lead the team in boards for only the second time this season. And once again, the Bruins completey took their opponent out of their offense, holding the Beavers to only 24 points in the second half. Chris Stephens and Nick Dewitz, who normally combine for about 26-27 points combined for only 8 this afternoon. And although Sasha Cuic, who quite frankly acted like a little bitch after fouling Ryan Hollins, had 24 points, he was pretty much their only offense.

The second half of the Pac 10 season gets a lot harder for the Bruins. They travel to the Bay and to Washington in what will be their toughest road trips of the season. It's not outside the realm of possibility that they could lose all four games, though I think a split is more likely. Also, they play in the dark jerseys against U$C, which I hesitate to call a road game. They're 7-2 in the conference, and I think the team that wins the regular season will have to be 14-4, or possibly 13-5 at worse. That's a tall order, but these guys are road warriors, and with Bozeman working his way back in, they're certainly capable. Perhaps the biggest key will be Ryan Hollins, who had 11 and 7 today. He's had three straight games now where he has made significant contributions, which I think matches his entire Bruin career to this point. If he keeps it going, they will be tough to beat.

Oilers 5; Kings 3

It's frustrating watching a team that looks like they just don't feel like playing hard sometimes. I don't know what it is. I mean, I'm sure they are playing hard, but the Kings were completely outworked tonight, save for a short stretch in the second period when they popped in two goals to take a brief one goal lead.

They were playing a team who was on their second of back to back nights, both games on the road, and they failed to come out with any jump, taking a penalty on the first shift, and giving up, what else, another power play goal just seconds later. Other than that, there was really not much to say about this one. They were outplayed in virtually every aspect of the game. They now sit five points back of Dallas, who has three games in hand, and this recent slump is bringing them back to the Pacific Division pack. Not a good time to go into a slump.

Honestly, I have no idea how to read this team. But like I said the other day, when they win, it's a struggle, and when they lose, they go down without much of a fight. That doesn't bode well for the rest of the season.

UCLA 56; Oregon 49

The old adage says that the way to win the Pac 10 is to win all of your home games and split on the road. The Bruins have already lost two home games, so that means to make up for it, they need to sweep at least twice on the road. Mission accomplished in Arizona a few weeks ago. After tonight, the Bruins have a chance to sweep in Oregon.

This is the second time I've actually watched Oregon play this year, and I've come to a conclusion: Oregon is awful. This game would have been very embarrassing were the Bruins to lose. Their streaky shooters, they don't run a very attractive offense, and quite frankly, they look like a Lavin coached team minus the talent. Still, they were able to hang around with the help of about 15 extra seconds on the shot clock, officials who can only see jersey pulls when the jersey is yellow, and an obscure rule that says if you breathe on Ivan Watson, you get whistled. But ultimately, the Bruins began to attack the basket in the late stages of the game, they got to the free throw line, and they pulled out the victory, thanks in no small part to shutting the Ducks down completely in the last ten minutes of the game. Brandon Lincoln hit a three pointer with just under eight minutes to play, and that was the last field goal that the Ducks would make. Their last seven points came from the free throw line. I'd be remiss if I failed to mention that although Ryan Wright and Darren Collison took tiny steps backward, LRMAM continued to show that he is the best freshmen in this class as he contributed 15 points and 10 rebounds (leading the team yet again).

Let's just be fortunate that this one is out of the way and get prepared for Oregon State. Mac Court is a tough place to play, and although they didn't play that well, the Bruins were able to grab the victory. At 6-2, they lead the Pac 10 by a half game over Arizona, and full game over Washington, who lost to Cal. With a win at OSU, they can really take the reins in the conference race.

Gophers 53; Fighting Illini 77

Late this afternoon, my boss walked by my desk and struck up a quick conversation about the Illini with me and a colleague. They more or less agreed that the Illini are somewhat overrated in the middle of the top ten. It sounded about right at first, mostly because I think we're all still comparing this team with last year's team, and let's face it, we're not used to losing hardly ever. But just look at their resume. They're 18-2, with both losses coming on the road against teams who are either entrenched in or have sniffed the top 25. They have wins over Michigan State, at Oregon, Georgetown, at North Carolina, and Xavier. They have 10 wins of 19 points or more, and a few over 30. Sure, some of those came against no name opponents, but give them credit for taking care of business (ya listening, Wisconsin?).

So are they really overrated at #7? I think we see them play ugly games like at Iowa, and at Northwestern. We remember the one point win against Wichita State. We see them trying to force the offense a little too much, and we see them waiting for Dee to take bad shots at the end of the shot clock, and we can't fathom why they're rated so close to last year's near perfect team. Honestly, we might never see an Illinois team run an offense as smoothly as the they ran it last year. But the defense, by all accounts, may very well be better, as Bruce Weber believes. They're deeper, and Brian Randle is a true shut down small forward who can guard bigger players as well as smaller, quicker players, without missing a beat.

Tonight, especially in the second half, we saw just why they're ranked in the top ten. The moved the ball on offense. They passed out of the double team in the post. They worked for and hit open threes, and individually, they started playing like we've wanted to see them play. Sean Pruitt was more active in the post than his numbers indicate. Brian Randle, who finished with 10 points and five rebounds, attacked the basket on numerous occasions, including a high flying alley-oop dunk on a great lob by Jamar Smith. Smith was on fire himself, hitting 5 three pointers on 8 attempts and finishing with sixteen points. And like they must be for the Illini to win, Augie and Dee were solid yet again, Augie finishing with 13 and 9, while Dee added a team high 17 points to go along with five rebounds and five assists. The hilight for me was the lazer beam Dee threw to Augustine in the post from the top of key for an easy dunk. Now granted, Minnesota is not a great team by any means, and the Illini were at the Hall, where, for opponents, stealing a victory has become tougher than scaling Everest (I believe that's 32 straight).

This conference is going to be filled with battles night in and night out, as Iowa showed Indiana and Michigan showed Michigan State (who blew a 10 point lead in Ann Arbor). There's no shame in losing on the road. But tonight, the Illini showed that the pollsters are getting right so far.

Kings 1; Sharks 4

Let's face it. The Sharks just have the Kings' number this year. This game was truly painful to watch, as the Kings generated virtually no offense, and took penalty after penalty in the second period, including a roughing call on Avery which negated a break by Corvo, and resulted in a power play goal that more or less put the game out of reach. It's weird that some nights they can look like an offensive juggernaut, while on others, they look like they really need Demitra back in the lineup as soon as possible.

Corvo had the lone goal, a power play goal that he scored with a rocket shot from just inside the left face of circle, giving him 11 on the year. The production from the blue line has been a nice surprise, but their inability to stop their opponents power play has really killed them lately.

One thing I've been noticing recently, the Boston game notwithstanding, is that when the Kings win, they seem to be doing it in close contests, either coming from behind, or barely hanging on. When they lose, they've generally lost pretty handily. I haven't checked the recent scores or anything, so I'm just making this up as I go along, but it's my perception anyway. Hopefully that will change and they'll get to previous solid play when they get some guys, most notably Miller and Demitra, back from injury, which is looking more and more like it will be after the Olympic break.

By the way, is it just me, or is "Beat L.A." just about the most unoriginal chant ever? Of course, this was coming from arguably the stupidest fanbase in the NHL (per my experience), so it's to be expected.

Kings 3; Sucks 2 (F-SO)

Another night of Mr. Magoo meant another night of worn out paths to the penalty box. Although this game wasn't as penalty riddled as others, it had enough to kill a fair amount of the flow, and as a result, the game seemed disjointed at times. Alexander Frolov returned to the lineup for the Kings and made his presence felt with a second period short handed goal, which I believe gives the Kings 10 for the season. They've needed them, because they can't stop anyone on the power play, and last night was no exception, as the Ducks got the goal right back shortly thereafter, still on the double minor.

Undaunted, the Kings fought back to tie the score in the third period. Lubomir Visnovsky, just recently back in the lineup himself, made a great play to shrug off a check at the right point, got the puck to Derek Armstong who wheeled around to the right wing and fired a pass to Luc Robitaille, who had been charging right down the slot. Robitaille scored a classis Luc goal, re-directing home a perfect pass from Armstrong right from the door-step. Most of his best work has been at a range of about two feet.

The Kings wasted a power play opportunity at the beginning of the overtime, and from that point on, the teams seemed content to take it to the shoot out. After Garon stopped Chris Kunitz, Alexander Frolov rifled one through J.S. Giguere to put the Kings up one. Andy McDonald responded with a backhander to even it up, before Robitaille ripped one over Giguere's shoulder to retake the lead. Teemu Selanne evened it up yet again, while Michael Cammalleri fired one wide to send the shootout to extra rounds. Garon would come up with saves on Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, with Giguere shutting down Craig Conroy before Joe Corvo stepped up. 14 stickhandles later, Corvo slid the puck past the prove Giguere, and the Kings beat the Ducks in a shootout for the second time this season.

That's three points in the first two games of this very important stretch of seven which continues with San Jose tonight, and includes games with Phoenix, Edmonton, and two more with Anaheim. If they could come up with ten of a possible fourteen points, that would be a nice way to go into the soft spot (Minnesota, Columbus, and Chicago) of the schedule before matching up with Dallas right before the Olympic break.

Ilinois 58; Northwestern 47

I'll be honest, because of the UCLA game and the Kings game, I didn't see a whole lot of this one, but I did notice a couple of things. First, the Illini aren't really going to be bothered by zone defenses. We have too many shooters, and they really move the ball well enough to get open shots. Second, man, that defense is awesome. When you hold the conference's leading score to one field goal, well, that's pretty good.

The box score will tell you that this was a step back for Pruitt and Randle, but don't let the numbers fool you. This was a zone defense team, and the big men just aren't going to get big points against those types of teams. Pay more attention to Vukusic's numbers, or lack thereof, where Randle is concerned. Remember, defense is going to be this team's calling card, and they did nothing to disprove that tonight.

This game opened up the soft spot in the Illini schedule, and they took care of business. Can't ask for much more.

West Virginia 60; UCLA 56

A tale of two halves. The Mountaineers shut down the Bruins offense, and pretty much had their way at the other end in the first half and for about the first five minutes of the second half as they built a 20 point lead. For the last 15 minutes of the game, Jordan Farmar took matters into his own hands, while Ryan Hollins actually showed up, and the Bruins cut into the lead, and had an opportunity to tie the game, down by three with six seconds to play, before Mike Gansey stole the ball from Jordan Farmar and salted the game away.

As awful as the Bruins played for the first 25 minutes, there were some positives to take from this game:

1. Aaron Afflalo and Mike Roll were a combined 1-17 in this game, and that's not going to happen again. Credit the Mountaineer defense for some of that, credit that pathetic Pac 10 officials for at least one of those, but that's not going to happen again. Sometimes you just don't have it, and today, they didn't have it.
2. The Bruins made a tremendous effort in the second half to get the game back to a point where they had a chance to win. It's possible, though perhaps unlikely, that these teams could meet in the NCAA tournament, and if that happens, the Bruins know that for a big stretch of this game, they dominated. Mentally, that's important. I could tell you why I think so, but you'd probably laugh, and and it would take a longer post.
3. Jordan Farmar is starting to shake his offensive slump.
   
4. I'm going to talk about this all year, but this team's window is next year. What we saw was a bunch of freshman and sophomores (and Ryan Hollins) playing a bunch of well coached seniors. This season presents the rare opportunity for the Bruins to compete while also learning a lot. This is just one more learning experience.
5. Finally, this isn't a conference game. Sure, it's national TV. It's important. But they lost to a higher ranked team, and they acquitted themselves pretty well. And ultimately, they still lead the Pac 10.

Once again, the Pac 10 officials show that they're just flat out incompetent. Not biased, mind you, just incompetent. A WVU guard slams into Ryan Hollins, not foul. Aaron Afflalo nailed from behind on a layup attempt, no foul. And the coup de gras, Ryan Hollins hammers Pittsnogle at the three point line, no foul; Darren Collison hammered on a drive, no call; Jordan Farmar breathes on Mike Gansey, foul. The lack of consistency, the lack of recognition of the flow of the game, and the flat out lack of competence. The Pac 10 is the worst officiated conference in college basketball (and yes, these were Pac 10 officials).

Finally, I need to make the following point. I really think this game is going to be valuable for the Bruins. It's not going to do a thing to their NCAA resume. It helps their strength of schedule. It doesn't affect their position in the conference. It provides a great learning experience and some valuable exposure. But let's remember, these are the types of games that Ben Howland, God love him, wants to eliminate. The extra game during U$C week. The intersectional battles against good teams. He didn't schedule these games at Pitt, and he's been reluctant to schedule them at UCLA.

So to sum up, a very poor first half, a solid second half, and a good learning experience at essentially no cost. There are reasons to be optimistic.

Thrashers 6; Kings 8

In the fall of 1986, the Kings next superstar, the heir apparent to Marcel Dionne, made his debut. Selected with the second pick in the 1986 entry draft, Jimmy Carson was the player that would lead the Kings into the '90s, the star around whom the team would be built.

Also making his debut that night was a left wing with gaudy numbers in the QMJHL, but who surely couldn't skate well enough to stick in the NHL. Despite scoring 85 points in 70 games as a 17 year old, Luc Robitaille wasn't drafted by the Kings until the 171st pick, the ninth round, five rounds after the Kings selected future Cy Young Award winner Tom Glavine. Robitaille responded with 339 points over his next two seasons with the Hull Olympiques before opening the 1986-1987 season in purple and gold. The kid who couldn't skate well enough to make an impact in the NHL scored 45 goals and added 39 assists in his rookie season and skated off with the Calder trophy. To his credit, Carson added 37 and 42 that season, and would score over 50 the next season. But the prodigy who was traded for Wayne Gretzky disappeared somewhere around 1994, while the slow kid kept scoring, and scoring, and scoring.

Almost 20 years later, Luc Robitaille has amassed 663 goals and 723 assists. He's the highest scoring left wing in the history of the NHL. He put together the greatest offensive season by a left wing in NHL history in 1992-1993 when he scored 63 goals and 62 assists for 125 points. He did that in a season where Wayne Gretzky missed a boatload of games with a back injury. Later that season, he helped lead the Kings to within three games of the Stanley Cup.

Tonight, currently in his third stint with the Kings after stops in Pittsburgh, New York, and Detroit, Robitaille scored the 550th, 551st, and 552nd goals of his career in a Kings uniform, passing Marcel Dionne, becoming the greatest goal scorer in the history of the Los Angeles Kings. They needed all three to hold off an immensely talented Atlanta team. In the first period, he laid a huge hit on Andy Sutton, and followed it up seconds later with a nifty move in front of the net to open the scoring, tying Dionne in the process. Seconds after that, Dustin Brown ripped home a rebound to put the Kings two goals in front. The lead was short lived, however, as the Thrashers took advantage of favorable bounces to tie the score. Jeff Giuliano put the Kings back on top late in the period. The second period was all Thrashers, as they scored three times to take a 5-3 lead before Tom Kostopolous redirected home a Matty Norstrom centering pass to cut the lead to one.

Nortstom continued to contribute offensively (he would finish with a goal and 4 assists) in the third with a rifle shot for a shorthanded goal that tied the score. A few minutes later, Mike Weaver made a perfect pass to spring Robitaille on a break away where he netted his second of the game, giving the Kings the lead, and making him the greatest goal scorer in Kings history. After a second Marian Hossa goal tied the score at six, Giuliano added his second of the night to retake the lead at 7-6, where it would stay until Robitaille capped the evening with a 140 foot shot at the empty net. For the 15th time in his NHL career, Robitaille completed the hat trick.

The win stops a two game slide where the Kings have looked fairly listless, and although they went through stretches tonight where Atlanta pretty much owned them, they fought back time and time again, and got contributions from some unlikely sources to turn back a Thrashers team that was on a roll. With five of the next six games against San Jose and Anaslime, the Kings needed to gather a little momentum. Garon will be back in goal on Saturday, and hopefully Visnovsky will have knocked off a little rust. They need to start skating a little better, and lordy do they need to cut down on the turnovers. But if they can win four of the next six, they'll be in fairly decent shape. The schedule softens up a bit before the Olympic break, when hopefully they'll get some of the wounded warriors back.

Luc made his debut when I was 13 years old, and over that time, he's been as close to a constant in the Kings lineup as anyone, save for his two forays into other uniforms. L.A.'s siren song has always called him home, and soon enough, his jersey will reside in Staples Center's rafters with Rogie Vachon's, Wayne Gretzky's, Dave Taylor's, and that of his mentor, Marcel Dionne. He's been a Kings since he made his debut, and every time he left, you always got the sense that it wouldn't be long before he was back in the Southland. Congratulations on a wonderful Kings career, Luc. Now if you can just play like that kid who wore the purple and gold again over the next 30 games or so, I think everyone will be very happy.

U$C 45; UCLA 66

This one was over early, as the Bruins raced out to an 18-2 lead in roughly the first ten minutes and never looked back. It's not often that you say a game wasn't as close as a 21 point spread makes it appear, but honestly, that's the truth. It was complete and utter domination on both sides of the floor for the Bruins. Stout defense that frustrated the women of troy at every turn, and a very well run half court offense that created a lot of easy baskets. Good interior passing by the guards on penetration, and big men who could actually catch.

Farmar got the scoring rolling with three early three pointers, and although he struggled somewhat after that, it really didn't matter. Aaron Afflalo added a very quiet 11 points. LRMAM, who is cementing his status as the jewel of this freshman class, led the team again with seven rebounds to go along with his ten points, two coming on a very impressive tip jam of a Alfred Aboya miss (who drove to the basket on the play, which led me to realize that when he drives from the perimeter, he gets to the hoop in a hurry). By far the relative best line of the night, however, belonged to Ryan Hollins, who added 9 points and 3 rebounds in 21 minutes. He was active, and at least two of those rebounds were on the offensive end. He also had a big blocked shot and a couple of dunks. He still has awful hands, but if he can contribute, that's a huge lift considering all of the injuries.

Pac-10 official watch: They blew at least 2 blatant out of bounds call, the first coming in the opening minutes when it was pretty clear to everyone who has ever watched basketball that it went out off of a U$C guy. Also, apparently there's a new rule that when you're down by 25, you get an extra two seconds in the lane, as the trojans twice scored points only after the shooter had enjoyed some smores, put out the fire, taken down the tent, packed up the truck, and left the campsite. Not that it mattered. I just marvel at how incompetent Pac 10 officiating has been this year (and seemingly every year, as the Chronicler will point out).

Big tilt with West Virginia this weekend. It would really help in the tournament seeding process, and serve notice to those on the East Coast that they still play basketball in Westwood.

Quick Hits

Lightning - 4; Kings - 1

This is starting to get very frustrating. I understand the team is suffering from injuries, but in the last two games, they've had almost no one show up. The PK has been downright awful now for a couple of months, and they don't seem to be doing anything about it. Now Garon may be hurt, but then again, after the goal he gave up in the first period, I'm not sure how much that's going to hurt. Avery failed to convert a penalty shot, and their power play was downright pathetic. Just like last season, this team can weather injuries to some guys, even stars like Demitra and solid defensmen like Miller. But this team cannot survive without Lubo. If he misses significant time, the Kings might be done.

Illinois - 60; Indiana - 62

Valiant effort against a good team on the road. Once again they were undone by poor shooting and ultimately foul trouble, as Dee and Brian Randle fouled out. But Indiana is good. The whole Big Ten this year is very strong, and there's no shame in losing to the #11 team in the country on their home court. And there were some silver linings. For starters, Sean Pruitt had 17 points and 7 rebounds, both tops on the team. Randle added 15 as he attacked the basket a lot more in the second half. Chester Frazier looked pretty strong as well on the defensive end. The Illini really need Randle and Pruitt to provide offense, because teams have been keying on Dee and James Augustine. Not only do those the team need someone else to put points on the board, they need someone to take the defensive pressure off of the seniors.

Remember that Bruce Weber was 3-3 in his first six conference games with the 2003-2004 team before they took off and won their last ten conference games. I don't think they'll make a run like that again, mostly due to the strength of the conference, but if this team can make it click, and I think that what we saw out of Pruitt and Randle is an indication that they can, this team can be very good this year.

And not to Indiana fans, when you're the favorite, and you beat a team who's barely ranked ahead of you, on your own floor, by two after almost blowing a 15 point lead, after two of their best players have fouled out, well, rushing the floor makes you look like something less than a team with a storied tradition and 5 national championships.

The NFL Playoffs

I suppose this probably isn't the right time to say this, lest I be called a front-runner. I don't talk much about the NFL, mostly because I don't follow it that closely relative to other sports I like (baseball, hockey, etc.), which is to say, I still follow it more closely than 85% of the population, just not as closely as I follow baseball and hockey.

Anyway, truth be told, I'm a Broncos fan. Yes, I watched the game the other day, and yes, I'll be watching this weekend, and no, I didn't just become a Broncos fan last week. As it happened, one of Montana cousins moved to Denver around 1983 or so, which is the same time they got Elway. Shortly thereafter, we went to Montana for a cousin's wedding, and I stayed around an extra couple of weeks because they needed a little kid for another cousin's wedding. I drove down to Denver with the cousin who had just moved there and stayed for a couple of days before going home. Something about that confluence of events turned me into a Broncos fan, to the point of even rooting against the Rams when the Broncos came to town (full disclosure, I like the Pats as a kid, too, but that wore off - oh, and I stopped liking and started hating the Rams when they left LA).

So anyway, if you see me gloating after the Broncos hopefully win on Sunday, keep in mind it's not coming out of left field. I've actually been a Broncos fan for over 20 years.

Kings 1; Sabres 10

Sometimes, you just get the ever-living crap kicked out of you.

Washington 69; UCLA 65

Get used to this. I fear that this is pretty much what we're going to see for the rest of the season. A tremendous effort, but in the end, the Bruins simply don't have enough bodies to compete with the best teams in the conference. And it only gets worse, as Alfred Aboya was forced to leave the game with an injury.

The Bruins came out on fire, with tremendous shooting by Mike Roll and Aaron Afflalo as they built a big first half lead. Washington cut into a bit, but the Bruins executed their offense as well as they have all season, and they were able to push it back over double digits at the half. In the second half, the Huskies picked up the defense and the rebounding, the Bruins began to wear out, and with a few minutes to go, Washington took it's first lead, which it wouldn't relinquish, due in part to mistakes made by the young Bruins, including failing to rebound a missed front end of a one+one. In the end, it was a poor decision by Jordan Farmar with under five seconds to play trailing by two that did the Bruins in. He drove the lane and tried to dish to LRMAM running at full speed, who in my opinion was fouled before he travelled, but the refs (pathetic yet again, just ask Darren Collison) only saw the travel.

That makes two straight games in which the Bruins have opened big leads and let their opponents back into the game. This is completely opposite of they did last season. But this isn't a problem with nerves. It's a problem with depth. They simply have too many guys out, and if Aboya is forced to miss significant time, than this team is a wounded animal, bleeding, and other teams can smell that blood. The Oregon trip goes from possible to sweep, to probable split, to "oh God, I hope we can manage a split". The series with u$c? I'd take a split right now. At this point you just hope they finish .500 or better in conference, win a game in the conference tournament, and hope that the tournament committee shows them some love.

I usually write these posts right after the game, so the negativity is still flowing pretty strong, but honestly, I think the injuries are going to end up being too much to overcome. You can't have three of your top six out of the lineup for a significant period of time and hope to compete. No team can do that. And let's not forget, of the guys not out, there's Jordan Farmar playing on one leg. This team's window is next year, and all of this experience is going to prove very useful, so maybe there's a silver lining.

Man, I hope I'm wrong.

UCLA 63: Wazzu 61

Well, that was a little scary. I'm starting to get the feeling that this team is cursed. You're best off staying far, far away. I almost went to a home game while I was in LA at Christmas, and now I'm thanking my lucky stars that I didn't, as I likely would have left with a broken leg and a collapsed lung. Lorenzo Mata went down with what looked like a hyperextended knee with just under four minutes to play and the Bruins still leading handily (I was at a bar watching with no sound, so I don't know if they gave an injury update), but at that point, you could see the electricity go out. It followed a missed layup, and it was a springboard to a WSU run, as they came back from a 17 point deficit in the second half.

The first half was a little ragged. The Bruins were excellent defensively, but when the game opened, it looked like everyone was trying to make up for the lack of Josh Shipp, as there were numerous ill-advised drives to the hoop. But the first half ended with the Bruins up 14. They led by 17 with just over 7 minutes to play when Wazzu became unconscious, making everything they put in the air. They led by 9 with 3:47 to go, when Mata went down, and everything went south. Josh Akognon just went nuts, and the Bruins couldn't find an answer on the offensive end. The last two minutes were nuts, as Aaron Afflalo tipped in his own missed layup for a four point lead, after which Akognon was fouled at the other end shooting a three, and made all three free throws. The Cougars either forgot to play defense at the other end, or decided their best bet was to give up a basket and take it the other way, because Darren Collison went the hoop uncontested to make it a three point lead with under 30 seconds to play. That was when the officials decided to make their mark. Aaron Afflalo tipped the ball away from Akognon, then was held going for the loose ball. Inexplicable (or rather, explained only by the utter incompetence of Pac 10 officials this season) Afflalo was whistled for the foul. Akognon made both free throws, cutting the lead back to one. At the other end, Afflalo hit one of two, after which Kyle Weaver choked on an easy layup that would have sent the game into OT. Clock ran out, Bruins won, some dude bought me a beer.

By the way, I just watched end of the Lakers game, and does Marv Albert have the world's worst hair piece or what?

Anyway, the Bruins' season basically rides on Lo Mata's health right now. Mike Roll, in my opinion, was excellent in the unexpected start, not trying to do more than he was capable of. LRMAM led the team in rebounding again, and in my opinion, the Bruins overcame some really poor officiating to hang on. But the fact is, they're running out of bodies. They need to start getting some guys healthy, and yes, that includes FeLlins, much as I hate to admit it. But a win is a win, and with Arizona's loss at OSU tonight (and boy aren't they starting to step up on their home court), the Bruins lead the conference by a half game. Tomorrow's injury report should be very interesting.

Kings 6: Bruins 0

I'll admit, I completely ignored the game the other night against the Sucks. I watched it, of course, but I refused to write about, or even ever discuss again, save for the beginning of this post where I'm talking about not talking about it. But anyway. Fantastic effort tonight for the 2+ periods that I saw (early start meant that I missed a little of this one).

I got home in time to see Corvo's goal, and really, he did what a lot of people have been wanting for a long time. He put the puck on net. Not fancy, he didn't pick a corner, he just floated it towards the net hoping that something would happen. And sure enough, it did. Two Bruins skated in front of Andrew Raycroft, who never saw the puck flutter over his left shoulder.

More good work on power play in the second period as the Kings kept the puck moving toward the net, and Michael Cammalleri was able to bang home a rebound for a two goal lead. That led to some momentum, and the Kings ended up dominating the shot chart in the second period, if not the scoreboard. The Bruins had their chances, but Mathieu Garon really rebounded from whatever happened in that game that I'm ignoring and made some excellent saves to maintain the advantage.

That's when the floodgates opened. A deflection by Frolov, who hadn't scored in a decade. A rocket wrist shot by Dustin Brown. A penalty shot goal by Frolov yet again. Then the hat trick for A-Fro on a breakaway (a little cheap to be cherry picking with a 5-0 lead, but who am I to complain).

The good news was that a) the Kings were able to put their two game losing streak behind them, and b) they took such a big lead that they were able to rest some regulars and keep the guns out of harm's way over the last ten minutes or so. That was great because the fans who had driven over from Manchester got to root for all of the Monarchs on the ice in Kings jerseys.

Big two points tonight, and a great way to start the East Coast trip. Even better, they netted another power play goal, and didn't allow any on the PK. Now let's get through the Buffalo game unbruised and go on a little run.

Tragic

*Update* - Good piece in the National Review on the same subject. And that's the last time I'll ever use the phrase "good piece" to describe an NRO column.

Via this post over at Planetsocks, I just got some horrible news. Bryan Harvey (not that Bryan Harvey), former lead singer of the Richmond rock band House of Freaks and his family were found murdered in Richmond on New Year's Eve.

Harvey, 49, and his family were discovered after Johnny Hott, formerly the drummer for the defunct band, arrived to attend a New Year's Day party and discovered the house was on fire. Firefighters called to the scene discovered the bodies. Local news outlets reported that the victims' throats had been cut and their bodies bound.

Suspects have been taken into custody. Two 28 year old guys who are also suspected of murdering three more people about a week later. The motive, as I initially suspected is robbery. Just random chance.

House of Freaks was Bryan Harvey and Johnny Hott. That's it. Those two guys. They were signed after playing a gig somwhere, and I vaguely remember reading the story (I think it was in the LA Times) where the A&R guy said he couldn't believe the sound was coming from two guys with no bass.

They released four full lengths and an EP over the course of their career, and later formed Gutterball, a college radio supergroup which also featured Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate and Stephen McCarthy of the Long Ryders.

They've always been sort of special to me because I first heard them when my brother would play their albums around the time I was in the sixth or seventh grade. My freshman year in high school I had a cassette with a recording of Camper Van Beethoven performing on the late Dierdre O'Donahue's show on KCRW. At one point in their set, Dierdre played "Cactusland" from Monkey on Chain Gang, and the more I listened to it, the more I liked it, and eventually recorded my brother's record. Sophomore year in high school I bought Tantilla the day it came out. I had to ride my bike down Rosemead Blvd. to Moby Disc on Colorado to get it. A couple years later, the released their EP "All My Friends", which was soon followed by the full length Cakewalk. After they'd kind of faded off of even my radar, they released Invisible Jewel, which I finally picked up on ebay not even a year ago. "White Folks Blood" off of Tantilla even holds the distinction of having a spot on the first mix tape that my buddy and I made to listen to on our way to San Diego to play in hockey tournaments, which still stands as maybe the best one we ever did (all told, we have probably 14 hours or so of those tapes). If you go to Amazon, you can buy Tantilla with the six tracks from All My Friends as extra tracks.

They weren't anything groundbreaking. They played pretty strightforward rock music. But they had really smart lyrics, with all sorts of symbolic references that were really cool for a high schooler just starting to learn enough to pick up on those sorts of things. Lyrically, a lot their stuff tied back to their Richmond roots, with songs like White Folks Blood, Family Tree, and Big Houses all revolving around the Civil War and Antebellum South. It seems hard to believe that "40 years" from Monkey on a Chain Gang, which was written in rememberance of the 40 year anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb was written 20 years ago. Dark'N'Light in New Mexico was another song from that album that touched on the same subject.

Anyway, this is really bumming me out, and I'm probably going to be listening to these guys non-stop for the rest of the week.

When I lay down my head
Bound for heaven or hell
After all said and done
Please remember me well

You can dance on my grave
You can ring out the bells
You can drink to my health
But remember me well

Sing a soldier's lament
Hear the stories he tells
If you all shed a teaer
Please remember me well

When my ship's going down
And the band plays its knell
And the mast dissappears
Please remember me well

In a hundred years hence
With the worms I will dwell
When I'm gone from this world
Please remember me well

You can dance on my grave
You can ring out the bells
After all's said and done
Just remember me well

May Bryan and his family rest in peace.

The MSBM

That's "mainstream baseball media". Sometimes they say things that aren't very bright. Take today for example. Although most of the recent news about the Angels lately has dealt with the now underway trial to determine exactly what the Angels will call themselves next season and beyond, Steve Bisheff of the OC Registers actually wrote about some on the field issues. Good reporting, actually, as Bisheff writes that despite their failure to acquire a bat for first base, the Angels are still planning on starting Spring Training with Erstad in center field. This is good news for most of the in the halosphere who have been hoping that the team would go in this direction. He adds the following:

If Erstad is in center, leadoff hitter Chone Figgins becomes the third baseman, and where does that leave Dallas McPherson, the kid who was the power hope of the future as recently as a year ago?

Probably on the bench, at least until Scioscia and his coaches are convinced he's 100 percent healthy after that serious hip injury kept him out for most of 2005.

"McPherson could DH for us," Scioscia said, "and if Erstad got hurt and Figgy had to play center, Dallas could play third."

That's certainly one direction, although personally I'd be in favor of D-Mac playing third with Figgins moving around the field giving occasional days off while keeping his bat, and more importantly his legs, in the lineup. But then Bisheff starts to get a little weird:

All things considered, the Angels would prefer to keep the team's intense, unofficial captain at first base, but at this point they need any semblance of offensive help they can find.

Especially since Stoneman has spent most of the past three months either dozing off in his office or heeding the orders of a boss who is no longer Anaheim's happiest businessman.

You would be tempted to say Moreno has put a lock on the team's payroll vault, except that it wasn't so many weeks ago that Paul Konerko almost accepted a reported $60million offer to hit his home runs in Angel Stadium.

But once the postseason MVP opted to stay with the White Sox, who purportedly matched those dollars, it was as if the Angels shrugged and decided to take off the rest of the winter.

As shrewd strategies go, that one ranks right there with USC wasting its last timeout on a Texas two-point conversion with less than 20 seconds to play in the Rose Bowl.

Or have Stoneman and his cronies somehow forgotten how absolutely anemic Scioscia's offense looked in the postseason?

Has Bisheff forgotten that the post-season is a small sample size? By his logic, the Angels ought to trade Vlad while they're at it. No one is suggesting that, of course, but Bisheff disregards the fact that the Angels offense, especially bad in the playoffs, was fairly average in the regular season, finishing seventh in the AL in runs despite missing Vlad for a month, giving far too many at bats to Steve Finley, and getting virtually nothing out of the DH spot. Moving Erstad to center, which frees up first base for Kotchman and his 124 OPS+, already improves the offense. So does the return of Dallas McPherson, assuming he's healthy, which is a pretty safe assumption at this point. One place the Angels could have made a big improvement offensively was left field, but as long as Garret Anderson is around, he's the starter, even with is 99 ERA+, which is horrid for a left fielder.

So with one move, Angels have improved their offense at two positions (CF and 1B), and they have the power bat that they lacked in 2005 returning from injury. This team is already better offensively than the 2005 team, and that's with no acquisitions. Then Bisheff gets really loopy. In one paragraph he really destroys his credibility. He sets it up by slagging Juan Rivera:

If the manager were to write out a lineup card today, the No.5 hitter in his order probably would be Juan Rivera, the incumbent DH. Sorry, but that's just not going to cut it, especially in an AL West where everyone else seems to have improved in the offseason.

Got that? Juan Rivera = wrong answer for DH. That's cool. Reasonable people can disagree. He's entitled to his opinion. So tell us, Steve, who would you prefer at the DH spot?

Seattle has taken Jarrod Washburn off the Angels' hands, signed Carl Everett, precisely the type of DH Scioscia needs, then paid big dollars to lure Konji Johjima, Japan's best catcher, to the Northwest.

Huzzahwa?!?! Carl Everett? THE Carl Everett? Did I read that correctly?

Carl Everett, precisely the type of DH Scioscia needs

Yup. That's what it says. Un-freaking-believable. Let's do a little comparison, shall we?

Age
Everett: 35
Rivera: 28

OPS+ the last two years (in comparable plate appearances)
Everett: 85 and 94
Rivera: 118 and 106

ABs per strikeout last year:
Everett: 1 strikout every 5.4 at bats
Rivera: 1 strikout ever 8.9 at bats

So Rivera is younger, cheaper, better, fits in better with the Angels offensive philosophy, and presumably believes in dinosaurs, but he's not going to cut it in the improve AL West, while Carl Everett is just the type of guy the Angels need? Steve, I had high hopes after the first few paragraphs of that column, but that, I mean....just....wow. That's awful. That's the frontrunner for dumbest baseball related comment of 2006.

College Hoops poll

A friend of mine noticed that a lot of top 25 teams had lost this week and asked me to predict this week's poll (he didn't specify, but I'll go with the AP). 15 of the top 25 teams in the country lost this week, with Michigan State losing twice, while Kentucky got pounded at Kansas, and Washington lost their second straight conference home game. Unfortunately, ESPN has streamlined their site and now puts all of the polls on the same page, and no longer has the quick reference that shows how everyone did the previous week, so I'm kind of winging it and trying to spend as little time on research as possible. Here goes:

1) Duke
2) Florida
3) UConn
4) Villanova
5) Gonzaga
6) Memphis
7) Illinois
8) Louisville
9) Texas
10) Indiana
11) UCLA
12) Boston College
13) Oklahoma
14) NC State
15) Maryland
16) George Washington
17) Ohio State
18) Washington
19) Wisconsin
20) West Virginia
21) Pittsburgh
22) Michigan State
23) North Carolina
24) Syracuse
25) Arizona

Big jumps for Texas, Indiana, and UCLA, who all went undefeated (UCLA winning twice on the road). Big drops for Michigan State and Kentucky. Everyone else was pretty much saved by the losses that all of the other teams in the top 25 suffered.

UCLA 61: Arizona State 60

Fantastic finshes are becoming the norm in the Pac 10 this season, and Arizona State probably feels like they've seen more than enough of them. After losing on a broken play three pointer against U$C on Thursday, ASU tried to turn the tables on UCLA today. Trailing by 2 with about 12 seconds to go, Bryson Krueger nailed a three pointer that gave ASU the lead. But a few seconds later, Jordan Farmar went the length of the court to toss in the game winning basket with three seconds to play.

This game was pretty ragged all afternoon, with lots of whistles, inconsistent officiating, poor shooting from UCLA, and poor free throw shooting from the Sun Devils. Mind you, I don't think the officiating favored either team, I think it was just bad all around. I defy any of you to explain the difference between a charge and block using only video evidence from that game. Kevin Kruger moved into Josh Shipp and drew a charge. Later, Angounou jumped into Lo Mata, who appeared to be as set as Kruger, and drew a block. Shortly thereafter, Aaron Afflalo drove the basket and jumped into Angounou, who appeared to be more set than both Kruger and Mata, and drew a block (Afflalo also got injured and left the game after that play).

I'm sure everyone was surprised to see that Afflalo led the Bruins in scoring, again, and that LRMAM led the Bruins in rebounding....again. Afflalo didn't get a lot of support offensively, as the team's other big scorers, Shipp and Farmar, combined for only 19. They're aren't going to win very often if they only get 40 from those three guys, but they rebounded well enough today to overcome it, and they played pretty good defense on the perimiter until the final minutes, when Kevin Kruger found his stroke, and Bryson Krueger hit what was almost the winning shot. The Bruins were 1-15 from beyond the arc, and ASU wasn't much better until making their last few.

So to sum up, an ugly game, especially compared to Thursday night, but a hard fought road victory against a team the Bruins need to beat. 3-1 in conference now, with the Washington schools next. The home game against Washington is really going to be key. Win that, and they're still in good shape. Lose that, and they've got a tough road to the conference championship.

Illinois 48; Iowa 63

Well, this one hurts, but let's face it, they're not last year's team, Iowa is probably better than they were last year, and this was on the road. They're going to lose some games here and there.

What's really disappointing about this one is that it's a game they could have won. They had to work hard to get good looks, but when the looks aren't coming easy, you have to take advantage. You have to make those shots, and today, the Illini didn't. Dee was the most culpable, and he is going to get most of the bad press, but this was a total team effort at sucking. The three starting forwards combined for 10-14 shooting, but they couldn't find ways to get open often enough. The guards, on the other hand, were about as bad as they could be. Brown, McBride, Smith, and Frazier went a combined 7-34. That's just a hair above 20%, and you're not going to win games when you shoot that poorly.

Let me be clear, the Illini did not deserve to win this game. However, I do believe that this game was very poorly officiated in Iowa's favor. Augustine was a target yet again, picking up for fouls in very limited minutes. Iowa had over twice as many free throws as the Illini, and the big men did not take that many more shots than the Illini big men. But the truth is, that's Big 10 basketball on the road. You aren't going to get calls. You have to find a way to fight through it, and the Illini didn't.

These things are going to happen. Shake it off and come back strong.

UCLA 85; Arizona 79

Probably the most shocking result of the night (see below for the other two games of my three for three night), given the situation. Team on the road, struggling with injuries, playing an Arizona team that played an incredible second half at Washington on Saturday. But this is Arizona, and Illinois fans all over the land learned last year that they can occasionally be counted on to lose games they should win.

Terrific performance by all of the Bruins, as just about everyone who played contributed. They went nine deep tonight, with not one minute played by someone above the level of sophomore. Even Mike Roll and Alfred Aboya combined for 8 points in 12 minutes. LRMAM led the team in rebounding yet again, with another nine to go along with his eight points and three assists. One of the less heralded members of this freshman class, he's been outstanding and indespensible this season. Lo Mata (nine points, seven boards) continues to take the major strides that Fey and Hollins still have yet to take, probably relegating those two to major pine time even after they've healed. The super sophs combines for 54 of the 85 points, with Afflalo leading the way yet again with 20, supplemented by Shipp's 14 and Farmar's 11 in limited minutes. The best news was that the last four of Farmar's points came in the final minutes from the free throw line where he's struggled this year.

The Cal loss still hurts, and may come back to haunt them near the end of the season, but make no mistake. This was a tremendous victory on the road against a good team with an incredibly young lineup. Pardon me for looking ahead, but if everyone comes back, this team is a lock for the pre-season top five next year.

Illinois 60; Michigan State 50

D. That's all you need to know. D.

Dee Brown was unfreakingbelievable, pouring in over half of the team's points (34) to go along with three assists. Quite frankly, this was the best individual performance I've seen by an Illini since Corey Bradford single handedly took the 11th seeded Illini to the final of the conference tournament back in 1999. He. Was. Awesome. Whether he was driving the lane, pulling up for mid-range jumper, or canning circus three after circus three (Including about a 35 footer and a ducking, leaping, floating jumper to close out the first half), he was just unstoppable.

But he did have some help. Rich McBride had 8 points, 6 on two threes, and none more deadly than the one he hit from the left wing with about a minute to play. James Augustine and Sean Pruitt combined for 12 points and and 14 rebounds (Augie also added three blocks).

But the unsung hero of the night, who's performance was almost as exceptional as Brown's, was Brian Randle. Sure, his 3 points on 1-5 shooting and 5 rebounds don't seem impressive, and as text on a page, they aren't. But that's not the important line. More telling about Randle's perfomance was this: 9 points on 3-8 shooting with 1 assist and 2 turnovers. Those were the number of senior forward Maurice Ager, 13 points below his team leading average, and 2+ assists below his average. Randle has become a shut down forward, big enough to guard the four, and athletic enough to guard the two. He frustrated Ager all night long, and was the biggest reason the Illini held Spartans more than 30 points below their 82 point average, sixth best in college basketball. This team can flat out defend, and Randle might be the most important cog in this defensive machine.

Kings 4; Coyotes 0

Another two points. 9-1-1 in their last ten games. The Kings pretty much controlled this one all night after a bit of a shaky start during which Garon was called upon to be the rock that he's been lately. Craig Conroy took advantage of delayed penalty and wristed home a great pass from Matty Norstrom. The original call was a double minor, and minutes later, on the ensuing power play, Joe Corvo netted his eighth of the year. Luc got on the scoreboard near the end of the period to make the score 3-0, and that was pretty much that.

The Kings dominated the scoring chances despite being outshot (mostly due to a puck possession third period) and cruised home, with Luc adding an empty netter to get one step close to Marcel Dionne's team record for goals.

I was pretty much ready to throw in the towel during the late November rough patch (shocking, I know), but this team is playing hard, and playing fairly smart. The power play has started to click lately, and if they can turn around the PK, they're going to be very good. Last season's squad led the division for much of the season, but it felt like they weren't on solid ground, and sure enough, it eventually caved in. I don't get that feeling with this team.

Kings 3; Stars 2 (F-OT)

Didn't see this one. It was on OLN, my parents don't get OLN. So I went out with some friends and listened to the last five minutes and overtime on the radio. The best way to put distance between themselves and Dallas is to beat Dallas, which they've now done four straight times. Granted, they only picked up one point tonight, but it's still a big point.

In other news, the power play is starting to click again. Three more power play goals tonight. Of course, they gave up another power play goal. The PK has been awful lately. This is a complete 180 from the first month or two of the season. Maybe by February we'll have them both on track.

Year End

Yeah, I'm probbly gonna do it. Top albums, songs, concerts, shit like that. I should have done it this week, or the week before. But here's the thing. I'm lazy. Always been, always will be. You'll get it when I'm damn good and ready.

Gluckliches Neues Jahr, Alles.

UC Berkeley 68; UCLA 61

Pretty weak performance by the Bruins this afternoon. They were dominated on the glass, they missed open shots when they really needed to make them, and they were ultimately undone by freshman mistakes at the end.

Berkeley is very long in the interior, and it's tempting to say that the injuries to Hollins and Fey really hurt against a team like Berkeley. But since Hollins and Fey aren't threats offensively, and since they don't really play defense, and since they don't rebound, it's hard to say their absense made a difference. Maybe if the Bruin bigs had been in foul trouble all afternoon, you could make that case.

Shipp looked a little slow, which is to be expected. Coming off of a big injury as he had, it's often the second game where you really feel it. He still contributed, but he and Farmar missed back to back wide open threes from the left baseline with the Bruins trailing that were key misses (Afflalo missed a wide open three minutes later). Despite the poor play from just about everyone except Afflalo and Alfred Aboya (who had a bit of a coming out today), the Bruins still had a chance to win or at least send the game to overtime. Afflalo made a great strip on a penatration by Ayinde Ubaka, only to have Daren Collison get greedy and screw it up. Collison, instead of securing the loose ball, tried to rake the ball to himself as he started down court to start a fast break before he had possession. He never got close enough to the ball, Ayinde got it back, and laid it in for a four point lead, and UCLA never had a chance after that. Trailing by three with under a minute to play, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (who still led the team in rebounding despite grabbing only four who failed to lead the team in rebounding for the first time this season) ran away from the inbounds play when UCLA needed to foul, proving that he still has a few things to learn as well.

The old maxim is that to win the Pac 10, you need to win your home games, and split on the road. UCLA is now already behind the game with this loss, and it doesn't get any easier, with the Arizona schools next, followed by the Washington schools. At the end of the season, when UCLA is watching Berkeley, Arizona (who won at U-W today), or Washington celebrate a conference title, they're going to remember this one.

UCLA 71; Stanford 54

After 8 straight losses at Pauley to the Cardinal, the Bruins finally put on a good performance at home against Stanford and raced out to a 17 point advantage that would end up being the final margin. No lackluster defense that led to a blowout. Now unconscious perfomance from Chris Hernandez. No subtle "coach's kid" cheapness from Dan Grunfeld.

Instead, the Bruins brought their great post defense from the Michigan game, and Aaron Afflalo continued to make his case for being one of the best off guards in the country, tying his career high with 23 points while draining three more three-pointers on five attempts. The Bruins raced out to an 18-1 lead with contributions from all of the starters, including Josh Shipp, making his first start and getting his first minutes of the season. If this is only a beginning, than it was a great sign for the Bruins, as Shipp poured in 11 points in 29 minutes, albeit on only 4-11 shooting (but 2-4 from three point land). They needed those minutes, because foul trouble and a twisted ankle limited Jordan Farmar to only 14 minutes. No word yet on the extent of the injury. With Ced Bozeman sidelined due to a rotator cuff injury, the burden fell to Darren Collison to carry the load at the point, who only added four points, but also picked up 8 assists against five turnovers.

No action from the bi-injured FeLlins, but really, who cares at this point. Lo Mata has really improved on the defensive end. Only four boards, but three blocks. Ryan Wright and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute can already do two pretty big things that FeLlins can't: 1) Rebound (they combined for 16, 12 from LRMAM) and 2) catch passes into the post. Of the many frustrations that FelLins has been responsible for over the years, none has been more of a thorn in my side than its inability to catch passes into the post. And LRMAM, damn, what a freaking rebounder.

Great start to the conference season, and another test awaits with UC Berkeley on Saturday. A post oriented offense with Leon Powe up front, I suspect we'll see a lot of what we saw against Michigan, and that's quick double teams in the post. The big men defend well enough, and the guards are quick enough to make this work (although poor shooting from Daniel Horton helped in the Michigan game).

One down, seventeen to go.

Light Posting

Christmas break. Family in town. Kicked out of my old bedroom, where the computer resides.

Just got back from the crowdedest place on earth. Ugh.

UCLA 86; Sac State 56

Remember what I said the other day about 20-30 point wins and burying bad teams? Well, that's how you do it. And it's about time.

Oilers 5; Kings 3

Missed most of this one other than the third period, which I guess means I would have been better off missing the whole thing. Bad defense in the third, combined with untimely penalties, a horrid power play, and a lot of luck for Edmonton led to the two goal loss. Some times you just don't get the bounces, and when you have slap shot deflected to the skate of an opponent who is able to kick it in, when you lose a face off that no one even touches, it's just not your night.

It's not the same rivalry it once was, and maybe it's because I'm slightly buzzed right now, but I really fucking hate Edmonton, and quite frankly, I don't think they're that good. Of course, many nights, I don't think the Kings are that good either. I think that in a seven game series, the Kings would win, but they really need to get better, soon, in two areas:

1. The power play is awful. They couldn't even gain the zone on a 5 on 3, and it led to a penalty that cost them the extra man.
2. Face offs. I know Belanger is hurt, but they have to have someone who can win a draw once in a while. This is getting ridiculous.

Another big one Monday night against the Sharks. Let's hope some guys get healthy in the next couple of days and that the Kings give a little bit better effort.

Today

Nothing happened. Which is exactly as it should be when I'm on vacation.

Who are the assclowns running FSN? UCLA and Illinois talk below.

It's like they chose tonight to specifically piss me off. We don't get the Kings game, but we get the sucks game. We don't get the Bruins game, but we get the U$C game. What the fuck?

Anyway, Kings with a great comeback get four goals in the third period and beat Calgary after getting only two shots in the first period. Wish I could tell you more, but see above.

On the other end of things, the Bruins are making me glad that this game isn't televised, as they seem to be having big problems handling that national powerhouse from Wagner, on their own freaking court, no less. As I write this, they're down 8 with under 10 minutes to go, and I'll predict right now that UCLA is going to lose this game. It doesn't matter who's playing. It doesn't matter who's coaching. It doesn't matter who they've beaten on the season. When they play these games, they simply refuse to show up.

What do I mean, exactly? Let's look at a study in contrasts. The same team Coppin State team that UCLA trailed at halftime was held to 12 points in the first half against Illinois, who beat them by 20. Good teams don't just beat the teams they're supposed to beat. They hammer the teams they're supposed to beat. And everyone is going to have a down game sooner or later. Hell, Illinois barely beat Wichita State. But other than that game, their only single digit victories (no losses) have come against a ranked North Carolina team at Carolina, and a decent Xavier team in Chicago. Meanwhile, the Bruins have had scares against Coppin State, Albany, and Drexel. The Illini have won 5 games by 20 or more points, and 3 of those by 30 or more. Meanwhile, UCLA has no 20 point wins (one 19 point win against Delaware State). See what I'm getting at? I don't know if it's the coaching. I don't know if it's the players that come out of Southern California. I don't know if it's the lackadasical crowds. But UCLA simply doesn't hammer the teams that they should hammer. And quite frankly, it gets to be damn frustrating. It doesn't make it any easier to take when you realize that across town, U$C is taking it to Carolina right now.

Speaking of hammering teams, the Illini absolutely demolished Missouri tonight in the annual bragging rights game, the sixth straight win for the Illini in the series, going back the first year with Frankie Williams (my second year in law school). Dee and Augie will graduate having never lost to Mizzou. Honestly, this is as much a rivalry as UCLA-U$C has been in football lately. Dee led the Illini with 17 points as he shot the ball well again. Jamar Smith continues to be a joy to watch shoot. And the defense remains stifling. I don't know what difference he would have made last year, and maybe when all is said and done, we'll be glad he redshirted, but I can't help but think it would have been nice to have Brian Randle and his athletic ability on defense against North Carolina. But I understand that wall had been riding him all day and Randle had to take care of business. Sure, he broke his hand and missed the season when he punched that wall, but from what I hear, the wall hasn't trash talked him since.

68-68 with a few minutes to go, UCLA with the ball. They just might pull the escape yet again.

**Update** UCLA wins 74-72. Ben Howland doesn't like to play a tough schedule. If he can't get the team to play any better than this against inferior opponents, maybe he knows more about his ability to beat the big boys (or lack thereof) than we do.

Christmas Comes Early (But possibly so does Grinch)

Haven't seen this reported anywhere yet (update: MLB.com has it), but my brother just called and told me that he heard a report that Steve Finley has been traded. That's the good news. I assume the report is coming from ESPN radio as heard in Anchorage, Alaska. Now the bad new: They got Edgardo Alfonzo in return. The good news is that we get rid of a 40 year old center fielder with no range who put up a 73 OPS+ last year. The bad news is that we get a broken down 32 year old third baseman who hasn't had a triple digit OPS+ in three years. The salaries wash, and right now, I don't know how long Alfonso has left on his deal.

What does this mean? Could be a few things. Here's my best case, worst case, and most probably case:

• Best case: Erstad to center; Kotchman to first; Figgins to everywhere; Alfonzo to the bench or released; McPherson to third; with Rivera being the DH when the schedule permits.
• Worst case: Erstad to first; Figgins to center; Alfonzo to third; Kotchman to DH/bench; Rivera to DH/bench; McPherson to DH/bench
• Probable case: Erstad to center; Kotchman to first; Figgins to everywhere; Alfonzo to third; McPherson to bench
  

Let me be clear. Barring any unforseen injuries or failure to produce during spring training, if McPherson is not starting at third or as the every day DH next year (assuming he DH's because Figgins is at third), I'll be pissed. If Alfonzo does start at third next year, I'll be pissed. If both happens, nothing in my apartment is safe.

I swear to god, I'm gonna break something if the Angels start Alfonzo at third this year over D-Mac.

Rogue Wave w/ Irving and Mazarin @ the Troubador - 12/20/05

I wasn't home more than 24 hours before I got a call that a friend's sister had an extra ticket to this show, and I've missed Rogue Wave the last couple of times they were in Chicago, so I thought I'd take advantage. I was introduced to these guys back in summer '04 when they opened for AC Newman at the Bottom Lounge in Chicago, and there were one of those opening acts that made a big enough impression that I bought their CD afterwards.

First time I've ever been to the troubador. Really small and intimate venue. Great place to see a show. Kind of reminded me a shrunken down version of the Metro, shallow and wide. We got there before the doors opened, and waited for will call for a while, but we were still inside well before Marazin took the stage. Never heard of them, but they're a typical four piece, more or less straight forward indie rock. Definitely better than adequate for an opening act, and I'll be checking some of their stuff out on Rhapsody.

Next up was Irving, a five piece out of San Francisco in which everyone sings at some point, and at least three different guys took over lead vocals from time to time. Hard to describe them except to say imagine a band from San Francisco with guys wearing sweater vests and playing sort of California tinged pop, and that's pretty much what you get. They were very good though, and quite honestly, this was one of the better two-opening-act shows that I've ever been to.

Speaking of opening acts, Rogue Wave joins the likes of BRMC, Stereophonics, the High Dials, and number of other bands I can't remember right now that I first saw as opening acts before later seeing them headline. They remind me somewhat of Earlimart, in that their recorded music is fairly mellow and somewhat quiet (give or take a couple of songs), but in concert, they're very upbeat and very loud. Really a terrific band to see in person. Here's my incomplete and out of order setlist®:

• Bird on a Wire
• Publish My Love
• Love's Lost Guarantee
• 10:1
• California
• Are You By My Side*
• Medicine Ball
• Temporary*
• Every Moment
• Kicking the Heart Out
• Sewn Up
• Falcon Settles Me
• Endless Shovel
• Man-Revolution

* Not sure if they played this, but I think they did. I probably missed a couple on their, and if they played any B-sides/new tracks, I didn't pick up on those. Zach Rogue started the encore by playing a couple of songs solo acoustic, which was kind of cool, and made me think of the Starsailor set I saw when they opened for The Charlatans a few years ago. He played Man-Revolution in that bit, and it sounded fantastic.

This was the end of their tour, as Zach mentioned a couple of times, so you could sort of sense that they weren't holding anything back, and they had a sell-out crowd in the tiny room, so there was a lot of energy going in both directions. Considering I had no plans to see any shows while I was home, and this one just fell into my lap, it was definitely worth the few hours. $5.50 for an MGD is a little steep, but other than that, it was an excellent evening.

Kings 4; Canucks 3 (F-SO)

Another game in which you really can't say the Kings outplayed their opponents, but you can't say they didn't earn the win. They got behind early on a couple of pretty nice goals, especially the fist one from Markus Naslund. When the Kings took the penalty that led to the second goal, I said to my dad "if they score here, it could get ugly quick." But the Kings fought back with goals from Roenick (with a rocket shot, but man what a pass from Demitra), then Armstrong off of a nice pass from Roenick. Despite falling behind in the second period, they came back yet again on another beautiful feed from Demitra to Conroy for a short hander. For the second time in three games, they fought their way to overtime, then a shoot out, where Frolov scored for the second time in as many game. It was all they'd need, as Kings goalies remained perfect, with Garon stopping all three shots, including a fantastic save on Markus Naslund's attempt.

Great moment in the first period as Avery fought Jovanovski to a draw. They can say Avery turtles all they want, but during the scrum before the fight, Jovo lost his helmet. As they skated around before the fight, Avery flipped his off to make it a fair fight. Gotta love that.

The slump appears to be over. They aren't playing tremendous hockey, and other than maybe against Phoenix, they certainly haven't won overwhelmingly, but they're getting excellent goaltending, and the power play seems to be coming around a bit. They've scored a heck of a lot of short-handed goals as well. Seems like they're scoring shorties like they did when they had Russ Courtnall. Anyway, two points is two points closer to a playoff spot.

Kings 4; Coyotes 1

Didn't see all but the last ten minutes or so, as I was at the company holiday party. Another great effort from Garon, on back to back nights, no less. Also nice to see Demitra on the scoreboard, and Corvo with his fifth. Another power play goal, so maube that's starting to come around as well.

I'll be back in the sunshine of LA for the next cople of weeks, so the games will be starting a couple hours earlier. Don't know how blogging will be affected. Probably not very much.

UCLA 68; Michigan 61

College basketball is a guard dominated sport, and UCLA did nothing to disprove that notion today, with Farmar, Afflalo, Bozeman, and Collison combing for 54 of UCLA's 68 points. It was a game of runs, with Michigan jumping out to an early 8-0 lead before Afflalo found his stroke and shot the Bruins into the lead. The teams see-sawed until the Bruins pulled away in the middle of the second half, opening an insurmountable 14 point lead. Michigan put a late scare into the Bruins, but a big steal by Afflalo, followed by a dish to Luc Richard Mbah a Moute who dunked it home put the game away. Ryan Wright added the exclamation point with a breakaway dunk at the end.

There's certainly reason for optimism. This team is almost all youth, with Ced Bozeman being the only upperclassmen getting measureable minutes, and those may be cut a bit as Josh Shipp gets healthy (although Howland will probably find ways to take minutes away from the less effective post players). Speaking of the post, Ryan Wright was solid, if unspectacular. At the very least, he shows promise, which is more than we can say for Fey or Hollins, the latter of whom showed, yet again, that he simply cannot catch entry passes. Mbah a Moute is a warrior on the boards, and I really like the potential he's showing, not to mention the game that he already has.

At the end of the game, the Bruins had 2 sophomores and 3 freshmen on the floor. With that, they beat a good Michigan team on the road. The future looks pretty good.

**UPDATE -- Now with the link that I meant to put in yesterday, the lack of which made this section below somewhat confusing.**

Hello to all the visitors from Bruin Hoop Scoop. Thanks to Jeremy for the link. FYI - I try to do game recaps and the like after all games that I can get on TV. Keep in mind that I'm coming to you from Chicago (well, usally anyway - right now I'm in Temple City, but most of the time I'm in Chicago), and we can't get every game there. I'm a UC Riverside grad who grew up a Bruins fan, then went to the University of Illinois for law school (so I'm a big Illini fan, too). Occasionally, when the spirit moves me, I'll do a more general post like this one, which is now looking foolish thanks the 11-0 (and likely to be at least 14-0) Illini. So feel free to look around, and don't be a stranger. During the baseball season, this is pretty much an Angels site. During this time of year, it's UCLA, Illinois, and LA Kings site. And pretty much throughout the year, it's an indie rock site from time to time.

Kings 4; Sucks 3 (F-Shootout)

The Kings were fantastic for the first 18 minutes. Then they figured that this was a game where they would play well, and they figured that would carry them through. They were not good for the last 42 minutes, but they had Mathieu Garon behind them, who was absolutely outstanding. And that's without taking the shootout into account. He made big save after big save in the second and third periods and kept them in the game long enough for Peter Kanko to bank in the tying goal in the third period. Congrats to Kanko on his first NHL goal in his first NHL game, and congrats to Giuliano on his first NHL point. Youth was served, as Dustin Brown added a power play goal.

Things that concern me: First of all, there's almost no puck support by the Kings. If one guy has the puck roll off of his stick, of battles to a draw on the boards, there's always an opponent on the puck, and never a King. When you aren't getting the bounces, and for the most part, the Kings aren't, that's a killer. They relied far too much on Garon all night. And has anyone seen Frolov, Demitra, and Conroy? I keep hearing their names, but I can't seem to find them on the ice.

Garon was incredible, and the shootout was just the icing on the cake. He got a bit of a break when Selanne lost control of the puck on his chance, but Scott Niedermayer made a great move, and Garon absolutely stoned him. From the TV angle, I could have sworn he scored, but man, what an awesome save.

When you win without playing your best, you take what you get, because you figure that sooner or later, you're going to start playing well again. Well, sooner is gone, and later is on its way out of the building. It would be nice to see the Kings start playing decent hockey again. But I'll gladly take the two points.

Disgusting

There were so many things wrong with the way the Kings played tonight, and really, they're pretty much all things that have been happening for the last couple of weeks, that to take the time to write about all of them would be a big waste of time.

They're being outhit. They're being outskated. They're being outworked. Not just by the good teams, but by every team they play. Even Florida looked good enough to beat them the other day.

By the end of the season, they'll be luck to sneak into the seventh or eighth spot. They're still living off of that good start, but that can only last so long. 13 straight games coming up against Western Conference teams, nine of them intra-division. Fewer than 16 points in that stretch, and they're in huge trouble.

Time to sit Frolov down for a game or two. There was a lot of Frolov and Ovechkin talk before this game, but Ovechkin was so much better than Frolov tonight that you couldn't even really make a comparison. And someone give Mathieu Garon some orange juice, because LaBarbera was, well, he wasn't good.

Good God. They just lost to fucking Washington.

New Music

And I mean really new. This is gonna be a short one, but two things I rarely do are a) get to like a band before they've released an album, and 2) get to like bands that repeat, or spell, their own name in their debut single over and over again. But thanks to 120 minutes, which I watched for like the first time in forever this week, I caught the video for this band called...wait for it....Morningwood. Seriously. But dammit if the song ain't catchy. Give it a listen. It's on their myspace site along with the video (just click the link and it should start playing automatically in a few seconds). It sounds like something I'm gonna listen to about 10 times, then probably never again. I have no idea what any of their other stuff sounds like, but hey, take it for what it's worth.

Catching up from yesterday

Kings 3; Panthers 1

I think it's safe to say that this was exactly what the Kings needed. They're still stuggling a bit on offense, but they got two goals out of the slumping Pavol Demitra, a goal out of the yet-to-break-out Michael Cammalleri, they were perfect on the PK for the first time in just about forever, and they got one on the power play (with another coming just as a PP ended). This was a game in which they weren't fantastic, but there was some improvement in every area, and a much needed two points.

Once again, Demitra converted on a shorthanded chance. Maybe one of the problems with the penalty kill has been a willingness to take too many chances for shorthanded breakaways. But when it works, it's pretty, and it can be a real back breaker sometimes. Demitra showed that he's one of the most skilled players in the league when he faked Roberto Luongo out of his pads for the Kings second goal.

Mathieu Garon is starting to take command of the starting job. It's no fault of Jason LaBarbera that Garon started his run of solid play when LaBarbera was out for personal reasons, but the Kings have needed someone to rise to the occasion, and Garon is starting to look like that guy.

The next three games are pretty critical. One against an Eastern team that they really should win, and two against divisional opponents as they start another stretch against Western Conference teams. This improvement couldn't have come at a more important time.

(11) Illinois 89; Oregon 59

This was by far the finest performance of the year for the 10-0 Illini (I'm starting to get used to these undefeated starts), and the catalyst was definitely the man they're counting on, Dee Brown. He did everything on offense. He made a beautiful no look pass to Augie, one of his seven assists against two turnovers. He stepped out and hit threes, and he took the ball strong to the basket against the somewhat undersized Ducks. This was definitely not the Georgetown team they played earlier in the week, with a 7'2" eraser under the basket, and the big guys took advantage. With Brown, Jamar Smith, and Rich McBride, this is a perimiter oriented offense, yet the big men combined for 34 points, the most surprising being the 11 points (and 8 rebounds) they got out of Marcus Arnold. The Illini dominated the glass, outrebounding Oregon 44-28.

By the way, Bruce Weber is now a pedestrian 73-9 in his time at Illinois. That's not too bad.

(16) UCLA 67; (17) Nevada 56

This one wasn't on TV here thanks to the geniuses at the Wooden Classic who signed a TV contract with KCAL. Thanks a lot, assholes.

Anyway, much needed solid victory against a good team. This was not Albany or Coppin State. Nevada can play. They beat Kansas in Kansas. They were a capable tournament team last year until they ran into the Illinois buzz-saw, where James Augustine showed Nick Fazekas how to play. This was a confidence boost, as a well as message to the national press that, yes, they are as good as their early rankings, despite the UCLA trademark crappy early season games against even crappier opponents.

JC is an Angel

Link is in the title.

JC Romero for Alex Casilla. He had a very good part of the year this season, and at times was really considered a break out candidate, although the Chronicler will be able to tell you more than I could. Here are his numbers from last season. Pretty good at Cedar Rapids, with, predictably, less success at the higher levels. He's 21, so those numbers at Cedar Rapids aren't at super prospect levels, but that's not too bad.

Romero helps the bullpen, provides solid lefty relief, and didn't cost a whole lot to get. Let's face, theh Angels are swimming in middle infielders. Looks like a good deal to me.

SSSSSLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW

Wow. I know it's only 2-0 after one period, but I feel comfortable saying that this one is pretty much on the way to being over. This Kings team is S-L-O-W. They're being outplayed in every facet of the game for the sixth straight game, only one of which they've won thanks to Mathieu Garon. They're being outskated, outpassed, outhit, outshot, and just plain outclassed. Their special teams are special in that 'short-bus' sort of way. What's really amazing is that their opponents seem to know everything Kings players are going to do as soon as the Kings get the puck, which is really surprising, because I don't think the Kings have any clue what they're going to do when they get the puck.

It's too bad it's a Thursday, because if this game were tomorrow night, I could be drinking heavily. It looks like I'll be sick either way.

The snow falling outside is at least a nice diversion.

**UPDATE**

Better second half of the second period, and much better third period, but not enough, and the Kings lose their fifth in six games, and the sixth in eight games. Frolov = nothing. Conroy = nothing. Demitra = less than nothing. The Kings will not win, ever, if their top line can't produce.

Inside the wacky mind of Bill Stoneman

Bill Stoneman in today's LA Times on the decision to not offer arbitration to Bengie Molina:

"We were leaning toward arbitration with Bengie, but with the emergence of Mathis and right behind him, Mike Napoli, I didn't want to throw up a roadblock that would impede them,"

Bill Stoneman, last week: Offers Paul Konerko a five year contract which would have effectively blocked Casey Kotchman and/or Kendry Morales.

Bill Stoneman last year: Signs Orlando Cabrera to a four year deal, at last one year of which (if not two) will block Brandon Wood, Erick Aybar, or Alberto Callaspo, and hell, we'll throw in Howie Kendrick too, since he's another middle infielder.

Honestly, I don't get this deal. Mathis had a decent year, but it wasn't like he was really busting out and creating a big problem for the Angels. Another half year or so of seasoning in AAA couldn't hurt, although he's probably ready to be on a major league roster. Plus, the Molina boys haven't exactly been unbreakable. One, if not both, will break down a bit at some point this season. Worst case scenario with Bengie would have been a one year deal. My objection to retaining Bengie going into the off-season was the likelihood of it taking a multi-year deal to bring him back. With that prospect out of the way, I honestly don't see why this decision was made. It's a poor decision.

In other news, Wash is done for good, as we've known. I can see his point, though. He seems to have not been treated well by the top brass for whatever reason, but then again, he's the only one talking, so we're only hearing one side of the story. Good luck in Milwaukee, Jarrod. I'll never forget the gem against Minnesota in the 2002 ALCS, nor will I forget his first win, a fight marred evening in KC when Felix Hernandez Martinez sucker punched Frank Bolick and sent the entire Angels squad into rabid dog mode.

The Angels are working on a deal to send Josh Paul to Tampa Bay. Honestly, I can't imagine what it would bring in return. But if it brings anything of value, it's a good deal. He has a cool wife, though, one that isn't afraid to make jokes denigrating her husband's star status on the air.

About Ready to Quit

I haven't put a lot of stock in any of the rumors floated by the LA Times this off-season, but if the reported negotiations for Mike Sweeney are true, Stoneman deserves to fired, then beaten to a bloody pulp on the rocks on the rocks in the outfield. According to the latest rumors, Kansas City asked for Kotchman AND Brandon Wood, which the Angels said was too steep. That's the good news. The bad news is that the Angels are said to have told KC that if they'd settle on a lesser prospect than Wood, a deal could get done.

Let's be honest. Kotchman for Sweeney straight up is a bad, horrible, awful, indefensible move by the Angels. Casey Kotchman will provide similar production to Sweeney over the next two seasons, and he'll do it for about $20MM less, and when those two years are up, the Angels will still have him for a few more years before he hits free agency, eliminating the need to make another insanely stupid trade in two years. And that doesn't even take into account the fact that they'd be giving up ANOTHER prospect in this deal. And the really bad news is that if this is what they're considering for Sweeney, if you want Manny Ramirez, say goodbye to Kotchman, Wood, and Ervin Santana or Howie Kendrick, because it's gonna take more to get Manny than it will to get Sweeney. According to the Times, they're kicking around the idea of including Cabrera in a deal to Boston, who would trade Renteria to Atlanta to replace Furcal. This is something I could get behind. I like Cabrera, but I'm not wed to him. Let's just say that any trade that involves shedding their top prospects is going to send me over the edge.

I'll say again, if the Angels make the Sweeney move, I quit. I'll root for the Padres or something. But I can't continue to support a team this stupid.

Kings 2; Leafs 1

Earlier this year I wrote about how the Kings goalies were doing their jobs by keeping the Kings in games and giving them a chance to win, but that they weren't winning games by themselves. Last night, Garon won this game by himself. He was tremendous, stopping 35 shots while allowing only one, which was good, because the Kings only got two.

Dustin Brown, who hadn't made much noise on the offensive end in a while, got a few extra whacks at one in the first period, giving the Kings a 1-0 lead. He poked home the trickling rebound of a Matty Norstrom shot in the second (set up by a pretty pass from Belanger) on the power play in the second to make the score 2-0. Toronto got one back on a 5 on 3 after Craig Conroy, who without a stick killed two+ minutes of a double minor to Frolov, and had to be absolutely exhauste, closed his hand on the puck in an attempt to clear. From that point on, the Kings withstood the deluge, clearly outplayed for much of the rest of the game, but they hung on to win.

They were fighting Kerry Fraser in this one as well. Late in the first period, Mats Sundin took the puck in behind the net. Weaver was absolutely leveled while chasing him in one of the most blatant examples of interference I've ever seen. No penalty was called, and 10 seconds later, Norstrom was off the box for tripping. Earlier in that period, Alexander Frolov had been taken down in the Toronto zone. Frolov was called for tripping as a Leaf skated over his leg. Toward the end of the third period, A King was flagrantly tripped by a Leaf skating out of the zone, which resulted in no penalty. But, that's Kerry Fraser for you, who's always been a prick of a referee ever since he cost the Nordiques a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1985.

Back home now for some more Eastern teams. Finding a way to break the losing streak was a positive step. The Kings need to build on that and string a few wins together.

And if someone can find Frolov, Demitra, and Conroy, let them know they have a game on Thursday. They've missed the last few.

The High Dials w/ Le Concorde and Charlemagne @ Schuba's - 12/4/05

You may remember that I mentioned this band in my review of the Brian Jonestown Massacre show a few months ago. The High Dials opened for BJM that night (as did Richard Swift), but I missed pretty much all of the opening stuff, and got there in time for probably their last two songs. They sounded good, so I searched out some of their stuff, and I really like it. So a good band at a great venue for only $8? Couldn't pass it up.

The combination of the brutal cold and the fact that it was a Sunday meant that the crowd was pretty small. There couldn't have been more than 25 or 30 people for Le Concorde, about twice that for Charlemagne, and about 80-90 for the High Dials. While it would have been nice for the bands to have more people there, my selfish gene was just fine with the small crowd.

Le Concorde opened the night, and they were pretty good. Nothing earth shattering, but a nice way to pass the time. Charlemagne struck me more or less the same way. Finally at about 11:00, the High Dials took the stage. My very incomplete and very out of order setlist (more or less some stuff I remember them playing):

• Regeneration
• Fields of Glass
• TV Mystic (maybe)
• Holy Ground
• Soul in Lust
• Our Time is Coming Soon
• Strandhill Sands
• Sick With the Old Fire
• Things are Getting Better

Plus a few more. Honestly, the titles of most of their stuff aren't quite burned into my head enough to really remember all of it. And I've been listening to both A New Devotion and War of the Wakening Phantoms so much lately that it's hard to remember if I heard the songs last night or at some other time (like today at work for example). They closed with the last one on that list, and it's really an impressive number in person. Rishi, the bass player and backing vocalist, is of Indian descent (I think). He busts out the sitar for that one, and it's about a 15 minute instrumental jam around a melody from the sitar.

These guys have been touring since something like March, so I'm sure they're ready to take a break and head back to Montreal. But even after a late show on a Sunday night (they took the stage at about 11:15), they were nice enough to hang around and chat afterward. The downside was that they were pretty much out of a lot of their merch, so although I've been listening to New Devotion on Rhapsody, I couldn't buy it last night, and I'll have to get it from their website or Amazon or something.

Chatted with Thax Douglas a little bit too last night. If you've spent any time going to small venue shows in Chicago, primarily at either Schuba's or the Metro, you've probably seen Thax. He's the heavy set guy with the big beard who reads really odd poems that are supposed to somehow relate to the band that's performing. I don't get him, really, but he's a nice enough guy, good to talk to, and it's some local color, so that was kind of cool.

Honestly, I can't reccomend these guys highly enough. If you have a soft spot for jangly psychelic-style pop/rock, they're right up your alley. The new album is a little less on the psychedelic side, but the first three tracks are really a tour de force and not to be missed. So go buy their new album. You won't be disappointed.

Make that four straight

It's panic time. I missed this one because of a friend's birthday, but the Kings lose again, the "big" line doesn't do shit. It's looking like an ofer road trip. It's a long season, but it's time to start worrying. Maybe all of the pre-season predictions were accurate.